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Test sets all the way down

For giggles, I’ve been giving each practice a theme. If there was a theme for this week in its entirety, it was “Test sets all the way down.”

For the uninitiated, test sets are hard sets of repeats that you do in swim workouts from time to time in order to, surprise, test yourself. They are a very helpful tool for coaches to gauge their team’s fitness level and whether they are adapting to the training.

So when I say that every set this week felt like a test set, I mean that it felt uncertain whether I would make it through any of them. (Until Friday – god bless Friday.)

Partially to blame was the return of the pain behind my shoulder blade (Shout out to Dr. Williams at Staker Chiropractic for fixing me up!), but it was also just… hard. My approximate yardage total for Monday-Saturday was around 37,800 yards – that’s about 21 miles. 240 lengths of the pool each day. And so many of the intervals were really challenging for me.

Right now I feel tired but pleased with the week overall. Making sure that my body holds together continues to feel like my biggest challenge, and if it made it through this, I take that as a good sign. And being able to log this kind of yardage this far out from my Channel swim gives me some confidence.

So a huge shout out to Coach Bescher, the pre-senior group, and everyone at Wave – there’s no way I’d be training this well if they were not supporting me to an incredible degree.

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The Middle Bit

Who among us has not felt the crushing, searing exhaustion of the third leg of a 200 free that isn’t going well? Or one that is going well, for that matter.

When I got in to warm-up on Thursday, that is how I felt (i.e., like a piano had been dropped on my legs), and it got me thinking.

For me, it’s a bit of a metaphor for something about life’s tasks and challenges – There’s the beginning, when you’re fresh. There’s the end, when you can see the finish line. And then there’s the bit in the middle. The bit where you are already tired, but you still have so much left to go. There is hardly an area of my life that this has not applied to at some time or another. And putting that middle bit in it’s proper frame is a huge gateway to achievement. If you know that you will make it if you can just get past that bit, you can slog through it determinedly.

It’s possible that I’m in that bit with the England preparations right now. I’m working 1-2 hours a day on getting everything ready, and there is still so much to be done. And most of it is boring and tedious – finding out what paperwork I need to do and where it needs to go and when. So very, very NOT the glamorous part of moving to another country. But at the same time, I know that it will be over and that I am fully determined not to let anything stand in my way.

But, as always (and especially with the 3rd 50 of the 200 free), I’ll be glad when this bit is over.

Swimmers Take Heed

I spent a good bit of time this week reviewing the information on the Channel Swim & Pilot Federation website for the first time in 18 months. Man, do I hate forms. On the other hand, I couldn’t have put it better myself: “To obtain the maximum benefit from pool work, do not swim for long periods without a break. Far from building up your stamina, it will make you sluggish. Lots of interval work is far better.”

Over the years, I have found this sometimes difficult to convey to adult swimmers.

Open Water – A perfect Saturday at Falls Lake

Great swim at Beaverdam with Heidi, Sam and Melissa. The water is getting ever so slightly cooler each time, and it is almost getting to “nice” for me. I spent the miles working on my stroke – trying to get that flying across the water feeling back after a week of babying my back and doing so much yardage it was hard to do more than get through it. It’s also just tough for me to hold my stroke in the pool – I’m trying so hard not to run into the kids (to the extent of running into the wall so hard I still haven’t healed). I did a bunch of easy swimming as well, and I’m not swimming again until Monday afternoon, so recovery is the name of the game. I just ate all the food that we have.

5800 yards in 1:37 move time (about 2 hours 15 minutes total) according to Heidi’s tracking

I feel like I have so many deep thoughts out there in the water, but I forget them all by the time I sit down to write. I need a water-proof voice recorder 🙂 

In the best possible way, there was nothing particularly exciting about today’s swim – it fit into last week’s theme of just plain nice. Great day, great people, great training. Now to rest.

Joke of the Week – the joke is really terrible, but backstroke is the best

Swimming Coach: “Hey! Why are you doing only the backstroke?”

Swimmer: “Because I just ate, sir. I don’t want to swim on a full stomach.”

England Business

9/27 – Sent a couple of quick emails today – trying to work on making sure A will be able to enter school as a 5th grader next year. And responding to my pilot’s email with my contract.

9/28 – I didn’t get much done on England today, but I finished an article and a blog post, so, yay productivity.

9/29 – Still trying to figure out if I need to register as a homeschool or if they will accept the completion paperwork from online courses. And to get in touch with the friend of a friend to get some curated info on online courses. Also re-familiarizing myself with the CS&PF website. Man, I hate forms.

9/30 – Followed up with my pilot (who had seen my post on FB). Just trying to figure out what I need for the medical (and any other form-related tiddlywinks). I went ahead and scheduled a physical for the end of January (plus my normal one in November – we’ll see how that all works out, insurance-wise). And flu shots on my birthday – yay.

I also emailed the high school again to confirm that there are no testing requirements for J. And I did some list-making about what steps are next for “school stuff”

After re-reading a really helpful email thread with the wife of a fellow marathon swimmer in Bournemouth, I also emailed cis@bcpcouncil.gov.uk to ask about public (state) and private (independent) school options for the kids

10/1 – The Bournemouth Council sent me a 100-page document about schools. I did not finish it today.

The Week at the Pool

Summary

Monday – I felt really good at the start of practice, and just in general today, (once I had stretched and hydrated this morning). The IM stuff really got me – I wasn’t really tired, but I just didn’t feel at all like going fast. It ended up being a good recovery workout.

Tuesday – The pain behind my shoulder blade got worse after Monday’s practice, so I wore fins for 3000 yards. The fins wore a hole in my toe. Sheesh.

Wednesday – Skipped some yardage due to shoulder pain, but still got in about 5900. Looking back, my back actually held up pretty well. But it definitely still hurts and I will call the chiropractor tomorrow 🙁

Thursday – The day of the legs-crushed-by-piano warmup. The good news (for me) was that, after disappointing shoulder-induced performances on Tuesday and Wednesday, my shoulder/upper back felt better going into today. I spent the last two days doing, like, ALL the stretches. I’m still going to the chiropractor tomorrow, which is probably good, because after today’s practice I feel pretty well destroyed. I’ll ask him for preventative help for whatever the shoulder blade thing is (not being able to breath because a rib head is sticking into my lung) and for help in keeping my arms up and forward on the glide.

The stretch that seemed to work for behind my shoulder blade was this one: https://classpass.com/movements/thread-the-needle-pose (I was not this fancy before I looked for a link to the stretch – I did put my arm up, but then I pretty much just stuck it under my body. I’ve changed to doing it this way.)

When I got home from practice, E told me that dinner wouldn’t be ready for another 20 minutes. Whyyyyyyy God, whyyyyyyyyyyy?!?!?

Friday – I love fins so, so, so, so, so much). Holding 1:15 pace on 25×100’s kick was easy peasy. Although my left tricep is super tight from holding the kickboard out in front of me for so long. I stretched my neck and back after each 100 – they feel OK so far – should have stretched the triceps too.

The Gory Details

I am only including the “interesting” parts here – assume enough warm-up, easy swimming and cool-down to get to the stated yardage

Monday 9/17 – Theme – Enter IM (~6500)

10×100 w/paddles taking 1 fewer stroke each 25 on 1:30. I did a lot of 13s. I think I was holding 1:15s

10x75s fly/bk/br on 1:20 (started on 1:00. That was crazy town)

10x125s IM double free 2:05 took it easy

5×225 IM – I did 75’s of the free (illicitly – but what is being a grown-up good for?)

Tuesday 9/28 – Theme: “It’s time to start training” (~6000)

5×100 IM on 1:25*

5×100 drill free on 1:45*

5×100 free on 1:20*

5×100 IM on 1:25*

5×100 pull on 1:25

5×100 free on 1:15*

200 ez

10×25 kick on back :30

10×25 u/w then sprint :35

10×50 smooth

Wednesday 9/29 – Theme: Holy Sh*t

7400 yards for those who didn’t have pain under their shoulder blade. I missed about 1500, so (~5900)

600 w-up (was talking with coach John)

6×450 on 6:00 trying to beat your best 500 time. We ended up doing 8 when people didn’t breath every 3 strokes. I missed 100 on the first couple and 50 on the next few. I had to put on fins for the last 2 when my upper back started hurting.

5×200 butt head with kickboard between legs

5×100 swim/L arm/R arm/swim

10×50 (I don’t know – I used them as cool down)

Thursday 9/30 – Theme: Oh. My. God. (7300. I did every last yard)

Boy, the first 300 of w-up felt crazy terrible, though. My legs felt like the 3rd 50 of a 200 free race (and in my opinion, there is no worse feeling) I don’t think I have ever felt so bad in the first 300 yards of swimming before.

12×200 on 2:40 (held 2:30-2:35)

100 ez on 2:00 (we took more – don’t tell Besch)

12×100 IM on 1:30 (did free for fly)

100 ez on 2:00 (we took a little more – don’t tell Besch)

12×75 no free IM on 1:15 (god bless rest. Did free for fly)

100 ez on 2:00 (I think you see the theme)

12×50 one arm (odd free, even back) on :50

Oh my god I’m tired. Need food.

Friday 10/1 – Theme: Recovery day yay!! (~6200)

1600 w-up (I missed 100)

25×100 fins and kickboard – 5 on 1:30, 1:25, 1:30, 1:20, 1:30

100 ez

4x(25 fly, 50 bk, 75 br, 100 fr). (6 kicks off each wall. Double pullouts on Br. Breathe every 3 on free) (I missed 100 in the bathroom)

2x (2×25 sprint on :30; 2×50 drill on 1:00; 2×75 no-free IM on 1:15; 2×50 drill on 1:00, 2×25 spring on :30) first round BK, second round FR